St. Peter's Church, Eaton Square, is a Church of England parish church at the east end of

Eaton Square Eaton Square is a rectangular, residential garden square in London's Belgravia district. It is the largest square in London. It is one of the three squares built by the landowning Grosvenor family when they developed the main part of Belgra ...

, Belgravia,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. It is a neoclassical building designed by the architect

Henry Hakewill Henry Hakewill (4 October 1771 – 13 March 1830) was an English architect. Biography Early life Henry Hakewell was a pupil of John Yenn, RA, and also studied at the Royal Academy, where in 1790 he was awarded a silver medal for a drawing of a ...

with a hexastyle portico with Ionic columns and a clock tower. On 19 October 1991 ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'' newspaper wrote "St Peter’s must now rank as one of the most beautiful churches in London". It is a

Grade II* listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...

History

St Peter's was built between 1824 and 1827 during the first development of Eaton Square. The interior was, as was common at the time, a "preaching box", with galleries in three sides and the organ and choir at the west end.

James Elmes James Elmes (15 October 1782, London – 2 April 1862, Greenwich) was an English architect, civil engineer, and writer on the arts. Biography Elmes was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, and, after studying building under his father, and ar ...

called the effect "chaste and simple". This building burnt down, and in 1837 was rebuilt from Hakewill's drawings by one of his sons. The original building was a

Commissioners' church A Commissioners' church, also known as a Waterloo church and Million Act church, is an Anglican church in the United Kingdom built with money voted by Parliament as a result of the Church Building Acts of 1818 and 1824. The 1818 Act supplie ...

, receiving a grant from the Church Building Commission towards its cost. The full cost of the building was £22,427 (equivalent to £ in ), towards which the Commission paid £5,556. In 1875, the church was enlarged and reordered to designs by Sir Arthur Blomfield, who added a

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ov ...

at the east end and north and south

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform ("cross-shaped") building wi ...

s and "fiercely normanized" the interior. Internally Blomfield's chancel and transepts are

Romanesque Revival Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended to ...

, but externally they conform with Hakewill's neoclassical style. From its founding St Peter's, Eaton Square, was considered in Pimlico and until at least 1878 was usually recorded as St Peter's, Pimlico. In 1951 the crypt containing some 400 burials was cleared and the remains reinterred at Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey. Choristers for the choir were provided b
London Choir School
until 1958 when the choir school closed.

Arson and rebuilding

On 20 October 1987 an anti-Catholic arsonist set fire to the east end, in the mistaken belief that the building was a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

chapel. Within hours the church was engulfed. By the next day the fire was out but only the Georgian shell of the building remained. It was roofless, with most of its furnishings destroyed. The church needed total rebuilding. The Braithwaite Partnership of architects was appointed to completely redesign the building with a new and simpler interior, and to incorporate within the site a vicarage, offices, flats for a curate, verger and music director, a meeting hall, nursery school rooms and a large playroom for the church's youth club. Work on the new church began at Easter 1990 and was completed in 1991. It retained the grand Georgian portico but beyond that the interior is described by visitors as clean, bright and modern. The choir and organ are at the west end, as in the 1827 plan, but the fittings are thoroughly modern. The church is accessible and has disabled-accessible toilets. Behind the altar is an apse that is decorated entirely with gold mosaic. Around the side of the apse, part of the 1873 sanctuary which survived the fire can be seen, and also a side chapel now used as the

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...

office, complete with stained glass. St Peter, Eaton Square, London SW1 - Organ - geograph

Present day

St Peter's stands in the

liberal Anglo-Catholic The terms liberal Anglo-Catholicism, liberal Anglo-Catholic or simply Liberal Catholic, refer to people, beliefs and practices within Anglicanism that affirm liberal Christian perspectives while maintaining the traditions culturally associated w ...

tradition of the Church of England. It holds ''

Book of Common Prayer The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the name given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The original book, published in 1549 in the reign ...

'' as well as '' Common Worship'' services.

Notable weddings

* Edith Helen Chaplin and Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, 28 November 1899 * Margaret Campbell Geddes and Prince Ludwig of Hesse and by Rhine, 17 November 1937. The wedding had been planned for the day after but was moved forward after Prince Ludwig's family perished in the Sabena OO-AUB Ostend crash. * Lady Camilla Bingham and Michael Bloch, 12 September 1998 *Gertrude Vernon and

Sir Andrew Agnew, 9th Baronet Sir Andrew Noel Agnew, 9th Baronet, JP (14 August 1850 – 14 July 1928) was a British Liberal Unionist Member of Parliament. Succession Agnew was the son of Sir Andrew Agnew, 8th Baronet and Lady Mary Arabella Louisa Noel, and succeeded his fat ...

, 15 October 1889 * Dorothea Beighton and J. A. Middleton, MC, 4 January 1921 *Prince Victor Duleep Singh and Lady Anne Blanche Alice of Coventry, 4 April 1898

References

Sources

* *

External links

St Peter's Eaton Square
* (not accessible)
St Peter's Eaton Square C of E Primary School
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Peter's Church, Eaton Square 19th-century Church of England church buildings

Belgravia Church of England church buildings in the City of Westminster Churches completed in 1827 Churches completed in 1837 Churches completed in 1875 Churches completed in 1991 London, Saint Peters Church, Eaton Square Diocese of London Georgian architecture in London Grade II* listed churches in the City of Westminster Greek Revival church buildings in the United Kingdom Neoclassical architecture in London Religious buildings and structures in the United Kingdom destroyed by arson Rebuilt churches in the United Kingdom Neoclassical church buildings in England